Much of the work of Argentinian artist Cándido López’s is concerned with the Paraguayan War, a bloody six-year conflict that led to the establishment of the modern nation states of the Río de la Plata. Over the course of the war, Paraguay lost sixty percent of its population as its territory was occupied and its economy plummeted. In 1866, López himself lost a hand during the war when his right wrist was shattered by a grenade shell. Invernada del ejército oriental, 5 de abril de 1866 (The Wintering of the Oriental Army, April 5, 1866), painted at least ten years after he lost his hand, typifies López’s battle scenes, which feature armies of diminutive soldiers far outsized by colorful landscapes engulfing their actions. This unfinished work, the most violent scene López ever painted, reveals the artist’s process as he added the figures and cattle to a previously completed landscape. This layering of subjects indicates the importance of the land to the painting, as it plays an active role in this fierce territorial conflict.